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Name: Settled
Industry/sector: Property
Date founded: 2014
Founders: Gemma and Paul Young
Location: London

The inspiration for their company came when a mutual friend’s property purchase fell through due to a protracted process involving traditional estate agents. This inspired Gemma – who had previously worked in an estate agency – to quit her job and start a company providing better service and a simpler processs.

Settled stands out from the ever-growing competition in the online property space by allowing users to manage the whole process of moving home, from obtaining valuations to exchanging and completing a sale, for a one-off online fee.

The site brings together buyers and sellers as well as solicitors, surveyors and mortgage providers, and promotes listed properties on external listing sites including Zoopla and Rightmove.

The platform’s co-founders also wanted to speed up the process, so the automated platform can be used 24/7 eliminating many of the delays associated with traditional estate agents. The average Settled user sells a property in 30 days, as well as saving over £4,000 compared to using a traditional selling method.

The family-run business has already garnered over 1,000 users though its founders have so far avoided marketing and promotions while they refine their offering.

And despite the innovative model allowing buyers and sellers to contact each other directly, the company still provides advice and support from real people by phone, email or live chat.

A successful equity crowdfunding campaign on SyndicateRoom allowed the siblings to raise £250,000 of seed funding in 2015.

With an advisory board that includes Google’s European marketing director and a Facebook European head of partner marketing Adam Harrison, their company is certainly well placed for further fast expansion into a market which currently sees £3bn spent each year on estate agency fees.

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